Austin Powers Halloween Masks Are Flying Off the Shelves Thanks to ‘Baby Driver’

One of the funniest scenes in Baby Driver, a movie full of transcendently funny scenes, is at the beginning of one of the first heists in the movie, when Lanny Joon hands his comrades a set of Austin Powers masks to disguise their faces, unaware that, when Jamie Foxx requested “Michael Myers Halloween masks,” he meant the killer from the movie Halloween. Since they have nothing else to wear, they don the masks and rob the bank disguised as the International Man of Mystery himself. Groovy baby (driver).

Apparently, many Halloween costume websites have completely sold out of the Austin Powers masks, and it probably wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that this summer’s Edgar Wright blockbuster has something to do with it. Wright, who spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the hilarious turn of events, was delighted.

I’m very proud. I feel like through my career, I have given people some very easy Halloween costumes, like Shaun in Shaun of the Dead. I even mentioned to Warner Bros. [which released Austin Powers under New Line Cinema] that they may ship a lot of masks at Halloween, and I think that’s exactly what’s happened.

The Austin Powers masks actually weren’t as big a part of the scene at first. In the original script, only one of the members was supposed to have misinterpreted the memo and gotten a Powers mask, with the other two clad in Halloween masks as they were supposed to be. But since Sony couldn’t get the rights to the slasher movie in time, Wright quickly changed the script to add in the other two masks. Personally, I think it’s a lot funnier this way.

The first Austin Powers turned 20 this year, which also might have something to do with the costume’s popularity, but Baby Driver also sounds like a pretty believable culprit. Mike Myers himself also finds the situation hilarious: “I’m equally proud of my work as the killer in Halloween as I am for my work in Austin Powers.”